Transporting joy

Thanks to the founder of NGO Shunfengche, 20,000 people were reunited with their family this Spring Festival - without any transportation costs. The beneficiaries share their joy and experiences with Sun Yuanqing.

Wang Jing had not spent the Spring Festival with her mother Deng Yingxiu, who works in a Beijing restaurant as a cook - for eight years. The long working hours at the restaurant during this time of year makes it impossible for Deng to take leave. "And it's so difficult for me to take time off to go to the railway station to line up for a ticket. And I do not know how to book it online," Deng says.

This year, however, Wang finally managed to see her mother for the holiday. With the help of Beijing-based NGO Shunfengche, she flew from the southwestern province of Guizhou to Beijing three days before the festival to celebrate the occasion with her mother.

"Every Spring Festival, I receive presents and phone calls from my mother. But nothing compares to seeing her and being with her," says 14-year-old Wang.

Spring Festival, the most important Chinese festival for family reunions, also sees one of the largest migrations on Earth as people in different parts of China, especially the big cities, travel back home.

The passenger flow during the Spring Festival this year reached a record high of 3.62 billion, 20 million more than last year. It can be extremely difficult to get a nonstop train ticket home, especially for "left-behind children" like Wang and her mother Deng, who neither have the means nor time.

"The parents are unable to come home. But, flights from small to big cities usually have seats. Why not make full use of these resources and take the children to their parents?" says Wang Yong, founder of Shunfengche, co-initiator of the campaign that brought Wang Jing to Beijing.

Shunfengche, which translates as Free Ride, is a Beijing-based NGO that helps people get free rides by matching those in need via text messages, mobile messaging app WeChat and its official website.

The campaign helped more than 10,000 people return home for free in 2012 and 2013. This year, it has helped about 20,000 people to travel home for free. Among them, about 1,000 were migrant worker parents who returned home to be with their children.

There are 61 million "left-behind children" like Wang Jing in China, according to estimates from the All China Women's Federation. That means one in every five children in China lives without one or both parents, who have to migrate to urban areas far from home to earn a living.

In less developed areas in western China like Guizhou, the percentage is even higher. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of the children in Guizhou are left-behind by either one or both of their parents. These children, cut off from their parents sometimes for years, may have difficulty connecting with others emotionally.

This year, they became the focus of the Shunfengche campaign. Sponsored by China Southern Airlines, 11 children from Guizhou province were transported. The youngest of them was 6 years old, while the oldest was 18. Some of them had not seen their parents for more than two years. For most children, it was their first visit to Beijing and first trip by air.

They were taken to Tian'anmen Square, the National Stadium and the National Center for the Performing Arts on the first day and had a reunion dinner together. They were then sent to their parents' home for a 10-day reunion.

"We went to all the places which before this, I've only seen on TV. Everything looks new to me," says Huang Mei, an 18-year-old senior high school student.

This is also the first time for them to see how their parents work and live in Beijing. Huang and her younger sister worked with their mother in the hotel dining room for one day.

"This is really hard work. I now understand why mommy never managed to come home for the holiday," Huang says.

This year's initiative to offer free travel to left-behind children is only a modest start, and is expected to be expanded in coming years, says Wang Yong, the founder.

"Because of the limited time, we did not manage to take more children to their parents. Hopefully we can organize something bigger next year," he says.

Contact the writer at sunyuanqing@chinadaily.com.cn.